Assassination Classroom vol. 17

While I admire a lot of things about this series its best trait may be how economical its storytelling is.  What I mean is that in comparison to other (very) long-running Shonen Jump titles, mangaka Yusei Matsui rarely feels the need to drag arcs of this series out over multiple volumes.  For example:  Last volume ended with a split between Class E’s students over whether to save Koro-sensei or fulfill their original mission to establish him.  It’s a good setup with both sides having credible reasons for saving or killing their teacher and also something I could see having a long-term impact on the overall storyline.

Matsui clearly didn’t think so as he wraps the conflict all up in this one volume.  After Koro-sensei recommends that both sides settle their dispute with a forest paintball match we get a surprisingly tense and methodical battle where just about everyone gets a chance to show what they can do.  The mangaka also manages to set up an effective rivalry between respective group leaders Nagisa and Karma and flesh out their relationship backstory in a way that doesn’t feel too tacked on.  Even though Matsui could’ve milked this conflict for a couple volumes he still delivers a satisfying result before this one is wrapped up.

So where do things go from here?  This being “Assassination Classroom” it probably wouldn’t surprise you to learn that the answer is “kinda crazy.”  That’s because the newly re-unified Class E is gearing up for a heist — aboard the International Space Station!  It’s the right kind of crazy as this plan is just within the title’s realm of logic to push against it rather than break it.  While I’m sure that heist will succeed, it’s the how that’s going to happen which has me anticipating vol. 18.